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14 - The Republic - Plato · Logic Library

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Book four, Part two. Well, and about the business of the agora
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and the ordinary dealings between man and man, or again about agreements with artisans,
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about insult and injury, or the commencement of actions and the appointment of
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juries. What would you say? There may also arise questions about any impositions
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and exactions of market and harbor dues which may be required, and in general
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about the regulations of markets, police, harbors, and the like. But
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oh, heavens, shall we condescend to legislate on any of these particulars?
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I think? He said that there is no need to impose laws about them
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on good men. What regulations are necessary they will find out soon enough for
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themselves. Yes, I said, my friend. If God will only preserve
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to them the laws which we have given them, and without divine help,
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said Adeimantus, they will go on forever making and mending their laws and their
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lives in the hope of attaining perfection. You would compare them, I said,
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to those invalids, who, having no self restraint, will not leave
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off their habits of intemperance. Exactly, yes, I said, And what
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a delightful life they lead. They are always doctoring and increasing and complicating their
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disorders, and always fancying that they will be cured by any nostrum which anybody
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advises them to try. Such cases are very common, he said, with
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invalids of this sort. Yes, I replied, And the charming thing is
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that they deem him their worst enemy, who tells them the truth, which
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is simply that unless they give up eating and drinking and wenching and idling,
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neither drug, nor cautery, nor spell, nor amulet, nor any other
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remedy will avail charming, he replied, I see nothing charming in going into
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a passion with a man who tells you what is right. These gentlemen,
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I said, do not seem to be in your good graces. Assuredly not.
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Nor would you praise the behavior of states which act like the men whom
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I was just now describing. For are there not ill ordered states in which
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the citizens are forbidden, under pain of death, to alter the constitution.
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And yet he who most sweetly courts those who live under this regime, and
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indulges them and fawns upon them, and is skillful in anticipating and gratifying their
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humors, is held to be a great and good statesman. Do not these
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states resemble the persons whom I was describing, Yes, he said, the
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states are as bad as the men, and I am very far from praising
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them. But do you not admire I said, the coolness and dexterity of
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these ready ministers of political corruption? Yes, he said, I do.
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But not all of them them. For there are some whom the applause of
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the multitude has deluded into the belief that they are really statesmen. And these
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are not much to be admired. What do you mean, I said,
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you should have more feeling for them. When a man cannot measure, and
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a great many others who cannot measure, declare that he is four cubits high,
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can he help believing what they say? Nay, he said, certainly
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not in that case. Well, then do not be angry with them,
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for are they not as good as a play Trying their hand at paltry reforms
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such as I was describing. They are always fancying that by legislation they will
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make an end of frauds in contracts and other rascalities which I was mentioning,
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not knowing that they are in reality cutting off the heads of a hydra.
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Yes, he said, that is just what they are doing, I conceive.
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I said that the true legislator will not trouble himself with this class of
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enactments, whether concern learning laws or the Constitution, either in an ill ordered
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or in a well ordered state, For in the former they are quite useless,
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and in the latter there will be no difficulty in devising them, and
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many of them will naturally flow out of our previous regulations. What, then,
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he said, is still remaining to us of the work of legislation.
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Nothing to us, I replied, But to Apollo, the god of Delphi,
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there remains the ordering of the greatest and noblest and chiefest things of all,
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which are they, he said, the institution of temples and sacrifices,
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and the entire service of gods, demi, gods and heroes. Also the
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ordering of the repositories of the dead, and the rights which have to be
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observed by him who would propitiate the inhabitants of the world below. These are
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matters of which we are ignorant ourselves, and as founders of a city,
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we should be unwise in trusting them to any interpreter, but our ancestral deity.
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He is the god who sits in the center on the navel of the
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earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind. You are
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right, and we will do as you propose. But where amid all this
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is justice? Son of Ariston, Tell me where, now that our city
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has been made habitable, light a candle and search, and get your brother
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and Polemarchus and the rest of our friends to help, and let us see
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where in it we can discover justice? And where injustice and in what they
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differ from one another, And which of them the man who would be happy
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should have for his portion, whether seen or unseen by gods and men.
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Nonsense, said Glaucon. Did you not promise to search yourself, saying that
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for you not to help justice in her need would be an impiety? I
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do not deny that I said so, and as you remind me, I
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will be as good as my word. But you must join we will,
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he replied, Well, then, I hope to make the discovery in this
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way. I mean to begin with the assumption that our state, if rightly
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ordered, is perfect, that is most certain, and being perfect, is
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therefore wise and valiant and temperate, and just, that is likewise clear.
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And whichever of these qualities we find in the state, the one which is
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not found will be the residue very good. If there were four things and
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we were searching for one of them, wherever it might be, the one
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sought for might be known to us from the first, and there would be
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no further trouble. Or we might know the other three first, and then
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the fourth would clearly be the one left. Very true, true, he
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said, And is not a similar method to be pursued about the virtues which
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are also foreign number clearly first among the virtues found in the state, wisdom
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comes into view. And in this I detect a certain peculiarity. What is
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that the state which we have been describing is said to be wise, as
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being good in council, very true and good counsel is clearly a kind of
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knowledge. For not by ignorance, but by knowledge do men counsel well?
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Clearly? And the kinds of knowledge in a state are many and diverse.
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Of course, there is the knowledge of the carpenter. But is that the
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sort of knowledge which gives a city the title of wise and good in council?
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Certainly not? That would only give a city the reputation of skill in
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carpentering. Then a city is not to be called wise, because possessing a
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knowledge which counsels for the best about wooden implements. Certainly, not, nor
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by reason of a knowledge which advises about brazen pots, I said, Nor
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as possessing any other similar knowledge, Not by reason of any of them,
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he said, Nor yet by reason of a knowledge which cultivates the earth,
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that would give the city the name of agricultural Yes, well, I said.
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And is there any knowledge in our recently founded state, among any of
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the citizens, which advises not about any particular thing in the state, but
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about the whole, and considers how a state can best deal with itself and
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with other states? There certainly is. And what is this knowledge? And
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among whom is it found? I asked? It is the knowledge of the
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guardians, he replied, And is found among those whom we were just now
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describing as perfect guardians. And what is the name which the city derives from
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the possession of this sort of knowledge? The name of good and counsel and
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truly wise. And will there be in our city more of these true guardians
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or more smiths? The smiths, he replied, will be far more numerous.
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Will not the guardians be the smallest of all the classes who receive a
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name from the profession of some kind of knowledge, much the smallest, And
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so by reason of the smallest part or class, and of the knowledge which
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resides in this presiding and ruling part of itself, the whole state, being
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thus constituted according to nature, will be wise. And this which has the
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only knowledge worthy to be called wisdom, has been ordained by nature to be,
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of all classes, the least most true. Thus, then, I
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said, the nature and place in the state of one of the four virtues
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has somehow or other been discovered, and, in my humble opinion, very
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satisfactorily discovered. He replied again, I said, there is no difficulty in
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seeing the nature of courage, and in what part that quality resides, which
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gives the name of courageous to the state. How do you mean why,
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I said? Every one who calls any state courageous or cowardly will be thinking
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of the part which fights and goes out to war on the state's behalf.
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No one, he replied, would ever think of any other. The rest
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of the citizens may be courageous or may be cowardly, but their courage or
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cowardice will not, as I conceive, have the effect of making the city
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either the one or the other. Certainly not the city will be courageous in
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virtue of a portion of herself which preserves, under all circumstances, that opinion
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about the nature of things to be feared and not to be feared, in
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which our legislator educated them. And this is what you term courage. I
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should like to hear what you are saying once more, for I do not
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think that I perfectly understand you. I mean that courage is a kind of
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salvation, salvation of what of the opinion respecting things to be feared, what
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they are, and of what nature, which the law implants through education.
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And I mean by the words under all circumstances to intimate that in pleasure or
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in pain, or under the influence of desire or fear, a man preserves
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and does not lose this opinion. Shall I give you an illustration if you
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please? You know I said that dire when they want to dye wool for
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making the true sea purple, begin by selecting their white color first. This
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they prepare and dress with much care and pains, in order that the white
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ground may take the purple hue in full perfection. The dyeing then proceeds,
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and whatever is dyed in this manner becomes a fast color, and no washing,
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either with lies or without them, can take away the bloom. But
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when the ground has not been duly prepared, you will have noticed how poor
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is the look, either of purple or of any other color. Yes,
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he said, I know that they have a washed out and ridiculous appearance.
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Then now, I said, you will understand what our object was in selecting
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our soldiers and educating them in music and gymnastic We were contriving influences which would
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prepare them to take the dye of the laws in perfection. And the color
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of their opinion about dangers and of every other opinion was to be indelibly fixed
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by their nurture and training, not to be washed away by such potent lies
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as pleasure, mightier agent far in washing the soul than any soda or lie,
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or by sorrow, fear and desire, the mightiest of all other solvents.
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And this sort of universal saving power of true opinion in conformity with law
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about real and false dangers, I call and maintain to be courage unless you
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disagree. But I agree, he replied, For I suppose that you mean
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to exclude mere uninstructed courage, such as that of a wild beast or of
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a slave. This, in your opinion, is not the courage which the
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law ordains and ought to have another name. Most certainly, then, may
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I infer courage to be such as you describe? Why? Yes, I
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said, you may, And if you add the words of a citizen,
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you will not be far wrong. Hereafter, if you like, we will
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carry the examination further. But at present we are seeking not for courage,
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but justice, and for the purpose of our inquiry we have said enough.
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You are right, he replied. Two virtues remain to be discovered in the
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state. First temperance and then justice, which is the end of our search.
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Very true, Now, can we find justice without troubling ourselves about temperance?
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I do not know how that can be accomplished, he said, Nor
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do I desire that justice should be brought to light and temperance lost sight of
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And therefore I wish that you would do me the favor of considering temperance first.
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Certainly, I replied, I should not be justified in refusing your request.
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Then consider, he said, yes, I replied, I will,
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and as far as I can at present see, the virtue of temperance has
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more of the nature of harmony and symphony than the preceding. How so,
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he asked, Temperance, I replied, is the ordering or controlling of certain
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pleasures and desires. This is curiously enough implied in the saying of a man
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being his own master, and other traces of the same notion may be found
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in language. No doubt, he said, there is something ridiculous in the
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expression master of himself, for the master is also the servant, and the
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servant the master, and in all these modes of speaking, the same person
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is denoted. Certainly, the meaning is, I believe that in the human
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soul there is a better and also a worse principle. And when the better
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has the worse under control, then a man is said to be master of
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himself, and this is a term of praise. But when owing to evil,
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education or association, the better principle, which is also the smaller,
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is overwhelmed by the greater mass of the worse. In this case he is
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blamed and is called the slave of self and unprincipled. Yes, there is
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reason in that, and now, I said, look at our newly created
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state, and there you will find one of these two conditions realized. For
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the state, as you will acknowledge, may be justly called master of itself.
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If the words temperance and self mastery truly express the rule of the better
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part over the worse. Yes, he said, I see that what you
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say is true. Let me further note that the manifold and complex pleasures and
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desires and pains are generally found in children and women and servants, and in
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the free men so called, who are of the lowest and more numerous class.
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Certainly, he said, whereas the simple and moderate desires, which follow
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reason and are under the guidance of mind and true opinion, are to be
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found only in a few, and those the best born and best educated.
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Very true, these two, as you may perceive, have a place in
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our state, and the meaner desires of the many are held down by the
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virtuous desires and wisdom of the few. That I perceive, he said,
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Then, if there be any city which may be described as master of its
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own pleasures and desires and master of itself, ours may claim such a designation.
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Certainly, he replied. It may also be called temperate, and for
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the same reason. Yes, And if there be any state in which rulers
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and subjects will be agreed as to the question who to rule, that again
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will be our state, undoubtedly, and the citizens being thus agreed among themselves,
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in which class will temperance be found in the rulers or in the subjects,
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in both, as I should imagine, He replied, Do you observe
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that we are not far wrong in our guests that temperance was a sort of
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harmony? Why so? Why? Because temperance is unlike courage and wisdom,
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each of which resides in a part only, the one making the state wise
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and the other valiant. Not so temperance, which extends to the whole and
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runs through all the notes of the scale, and produces a harmony of the
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weaker and the stronger and the middle class, whether you suppose them to be
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stronger or weaker in wisdom or power, or numbers or wealth or anything else.
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Most truly, then may we deem temperance to be the agreement of the
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naturally superior and inferior as to the right to rule of either both in states
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and individuals. I entirely agree with you, and so I said, we
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may consider three out of the four virtues to have been discovered in our state.
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The last of those qualities which make a state virtuous must be justice.
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If we only knew what that was, the inference is obvious. End of
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Book four, Part two,